BERKELEY – California battled cross-bay rival No. 18 Stanford before falling in straight sets, 12-25, 16-25, 17-25 to close out the season Saturday night at Haas Pavilion.

The Bears were led by eight kills on .500 hitting from Bella Bergmark and teammate Lydia Grote also recorded eight finishes. Tara DeSa added a match-high 16 digs for Cal (7-24, 0-20 Pac-12).

Mima Mirkovic and Katie Smoot each had six kills on senior night in their final match donning the Blue and Gold. Seniors Gabby Bellizzi, Jade Blevins and Darian Clark were also honored before their final match for California.

Caitie Baird tallied a match-high 14 kills for the Cardinal (18-10, 13-7 Pac-12). 

How It Happened:
Cal battled back from an early deficit to close within 8-7 on back-to-back kills from Grote and Mirkovic. Stanford, however, scored six of the next seven and didn't slow down on the way to a first set win.

Mirkovic recorded a kill and Smoot found space inside the backline for a service ace to make the score 12-8, Cardinal, in the second.  The visitors used a run of five straight to go up 21-11 and Cal couldn't recover to fall behind 2-0 in the match.

The third frame was a battle from first serve and two straight Grote kills made the score 10-all. It was 13-12, Stanford, on a Bergmark kill followed by a Cardinal attack error, but another run of five straight gave the Card a six-point advantage and they went on to close out the set and the match.

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